Linguistic typology
Vali Rezai; Tahereh Samenian
Volume 15, Issue 3 , December 2023
Abstract
Lexical typology is related to the specific ways in which languages incorporate meaning into words. In this way, lexical typology, which deals with words, can be considered a sub-branch of semantic typology. Recently, studies in cognitive linguistics have shown how body parts act as a source for conceptualizing ...
Read More
Lexical typology is related to the specific ways in which languages incorporate meaning into words. In this way, lexical typology, which deals with words, can be considered a sub-branch of semantic typology. Recently, studies in cognitive linguistics have shown how body parts act as a source for conceptualizing different experiences such as feeling, thinking, etc., and are represented in different ways in different cultures. Using words that refer to body parts can help us express our feelings more accurately. In this research, we tried to take a look at the lexical typological patterns of the role of bodies names in the expression of emotions of Persian speakers. This research may be considered the first typological collection of the figurative role of bodies names in describing emotions. This comparative-analytical research is based on the studies of linguists in this field. For this purpose, nearly 50 sentences of linguistic evidence were extracted from Persian language database and some written sources and were categorized based on the concept of nouns in expressing emotions. In this research, it was tried to examine the samples based on their role in expressing emotions. The analysis of data has been done on the patterns which were proposed by Ponsonnet, M. & Laginha. K. J. (2020) and the most prevalent bodies names. Moreover, the findings indicate that the words "heart", "eye" and "liver" are used more than other words in Persian language to express feelings; Of course, in order to make an accurate assessment of this opinion, extensive research is needed, combining a culture-specific and cross-cultural approach.
Syntax
Maryam Khamse Ashari; Rezvan Motavallian; Vali Rezai
Volume 15, Issue 2 , September 2023, , Pages 29-53
Abstract
Object complement construction as one of the most important and challenging categories of grammar has been noticed by linguists and grammarians from past to present. The present study investigates the Object complement construction based on three basic hypotheses: Small Clause Theory, Predication Theory, ...
Read More
Object complement construction as one of the most important and challenging categories of grammar has been noticed by linguists and grammarians from past to present. The present study investigates the Object complement construction based on three basic hypotheses: Small Clause Theory, Predication Theory, and Complex Predicate Theory. Most of the linguists and grammarians who have studied Object complement construction in the Persian language have presented a similar view of the Predication theory. The findings of this study revealed that the analysis of the Object complement construction within the framework of Predication Theory is incompatible with the principles of the Government and Binding theory and Minimalist Program, such as the Theta criterion, Projection principle, and Uniformity of Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH). The analysis of the mentioned construction based on the complex predicate theory on the one hand ignores the principle of linguistic economy and productivity process by increasing the number of compound verbs in Persian, and on the other hand, it ignores the propositional relationship between the Object complement construction and the preceding noun phrase. In the following, based on small clause theory and arguments such as argument alternation, selection restriction, the ambiguity of the interrogative complex sentences, occurrence in different syntactic contexts, idiom chunk, agreement, paraphrasing, sentence fragment, scrambling, gapping pronominalization, and the distribution of NP-types as subjects of small clause construction was shown Object complement together with the preceding noun phrase should be considered a single constituent as a small clause.
Linguistic typology
Vali Rezai; Najmeh Khedri
Volume 14, Issue 4 , March 2023, , Pages 101-125
Abstract
Adverbs are among those complicated subject's different aspects of which have been investigated throughout history. However, linguists have not reached an agreement on the diverse issues related to adverbs, from its definition to the fact that whether it should be considered as a lexical category in ...
Read More
Adverbs are among those complicated subject's different aspects of which have been investigated throughout history. However, linguists have not reached an agreement on the diverse issues related to adverbs, from its definition to the fact that whether it should be considered as a lexical category in addition to nouns, adjectives and verbs. This research is aimed at determining the place of Persian adverbs regarding their prototypical characteristics as one of the parts of speech in the Croft’s semantic map of parts of speech based on the typological prototype theory. Hence, according to the typological criteria, a number of adverbs used in everyday speech of standard Persian speakers gathered from the national media as well as adverbs used in various contemporary Persian texts were analyzed. On the basis of the research results, considering the adverb as a lexical category, the place of the unmarked adverbs, defined functionally and considered unmarked typologically, in the Persian language was determined in the Croft’s semantic map of parts of speech in the lexical class of property the same as the unmarked adjectives, and it was shown that despite of the unmarked adjectives denoting the propositional act of modification within reference, the unmarked adverbs describe the propositional act of modification within predication. Moreover, the places of PPs on verbs and converbs, both of them as marked adverbs, were determined as words of object showing the propositional act of modification within predication and words of action showing the propositional act of modification within predication, respectively, in the Croft’s semantic map of parts of speech.
Linguistic typology
Faezeh Salimi; Vali Rezai; Mohammad Amouzadeh
Volume 14, Issue 1 , April 2022, , Pages 135-157
Abstract
Object omission construction is a valency-reduction process in which a transitive verb appears without its object and is used as an intransitive one. However, the addressee is able to understand the meaning of the objectless sentence. The considered type of object omission in this paper is context-independent, ...
Read More
Object omission construction is a valency-reduction process in which a transitive verb appears without its object and is used as an intransitive one. However, the addressee is able to understand the meaning of the objectless sentence. The considered type of object omission in this paper is context-independent, in which the reference of the omitted object is not mentioned in previous context and the context does not provide any clue to recover the deleted object. Among different factors which can affect object omission, in this research we attempt to determine the nature of the deleted object based on some important typological hierarchies such as animacy, referentiality, definiteness and number which can be used to determine the tendency of language in choosing the prototypical object in the sentence. It seems that an object is omissible when it has different features compared to the present object in the sentence. The findings prove this claim and reveal that the reference of the omitted object is located in the lower levels of the aforementioned typological hierarchies. Moreover, the findings indicate that an element such as 'number' which makes no difference in morpho-syntactic presentation of the direct object in the sentence has no effect on the possibility of object omission.
Mansour Rahimifar; Vali Rezai; Rezvan Motavalian
Volume 11, Issue 1 , May 2019, , Pages 111-139
Abstract
Extended Abstract
Introduction
This article is an attempt to illustrate a comprehensive functional-typological study of two perfect constructions in modern Persian. In regard to these forms, there has been a kind of intricate complexity and difficulty that have occupied the minds of the grammarians ...
Read More
Extended Abstract
Introduction
This article is an attempt to illustrate a comprehensive functional-typological study of two perfect constructions in modern Persian. In regard to these forms, there has been a kind of intricate complexity and difficulty that have occupied the minds of the grammarians and linguists. Regarding the complexity of the perfect constructions, what can be seen is the consistency and heterogeneity of these constructions with the past, on the one hand, and with the present, on the other hand, as well as the characteristics of tense and aspect, and their functions with adverb expressions. In addition, since the nature of the sentences are not directly determined by grammatical tenses, the various features of textual, linguistic, and meta-linguistic features play a great role in this regard. Accordingly, the motivation for writing this essay is to provide an explanation of the various aspects and functions of the present perfect and present perfect progressive in the contemporary Persian language, especially since their uses are widespread in their entirety compared with other perfect structures so that we can assume present perfect "the prototype" of these constructions. Therefore, we provide an explanation of these two perfect constructions, whose common elements are the past stem of the main verb plus the perfect aspect morpheme –e-, or the so-called “past participle. Also, the amalgamation of present perfect with the past tense, and its relation with definity, on then one hand, and the behavior of temporal adverbs towards the limitation of the perfect uses, along with aspectual and temporal nature of this construction and other perfect constructions as well as their relationship with the category of evidentiality on the other hand, have made this research more impressive.
Review of Literature
This paper is conducted based on the framework of the functional-typological approach. In this approach, the structure of language depends on its role, in particular the role of communication. In other words, the most prominent principle in this approach is that the fundamental purpose of language is communication between human beings, and this role forms the structures in which the languages take. The claim of the role-oriented views is that, since language is a tool from the foundation, it is wise to think that language structures are best suited to refer to roles that they accept. Givon (2001, 293-297) puts forward that language and grammar are neither explained nor described as a separate device. He considers perfect structures the most complex and delicate categories in grammar. This linguist considers language a direct reflection of the human communication needs. He considers perfect constructs for an event that either occurred before a point of reference or at least before the speech time. He believes that perfect aspect is the most complicated grammatical category, giving it four characteristics of anteriority, perfectivity, counter-sequentiality and lingering relevance. A number of other authors also take benefit of the views of linguists such as Comrie (1976) and (1989), Bybee et al. (1994), Kyparsky (2002), Aikhenwald (2004), Vanvalin (2005), Duhan (2011), Craft (2012), and Haddlestone (2012, 1984).
Method
To attain the goal of the study, the present authors have taken benefit from the application of functional-typological approach. The research data is collected mainly from current spoken Persian texts together with the content of television series, movies, talk shows, newspapers, periodicals, and in particular, the Bijankhan linguistic corpus, as well as classical Persian literature, in some cases, to support the claims. After evaluating the data, based on the phonetic, morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic criteria, the functions of the four perfect constructions are presented one by one, and their relationship with tense and aspect is presented. Also, the relationship between the evidentiality and the perfect constructions is determined.
Reaults and Discussion
In this paper the authors focused on two perfect constructions in Persian and tried to find out their tense and aspect relations, along with their different functions. As to the nature of tense or aspect regarding perfect constructions, it is concluded that, contrary to the claims of the grammarians and some linguists that placed these structures in the tense category, one can not draw the boundary between the two because both the nature of tense and nature of aspect can be seen in these constructions. Regarding the functions of the perfect constructions discussed in Farsi, it can be argued that for the present perfect, at least the functions of current relevance, hot news, resultative, experiential, mirativity, expression of the future event, tense projection, and dependence on the present and the past, for the present perfect progressive, as a combination of past and past continuous tense, functions of continuity, repetition, and habituation and evidentialty, and for the past perfect, actions preceding the past, the occurrence without precedence over the past, the continuous functioning and expression of the future can be mentioned. In addition, in the case of present perfect progressive, especially the first person and the second person do not have much use, and regarding the relationship between the two constructions and the category of evidentiality, it has been shown that both constructions show the function of the evidentiality. Furthermore, present perfect in the Persian language is one of the controversial grammatical constructs and is complex in terms of both form and semantics. In measuring other perfect structures, this construction is one of the most prominent grammatical categories: on the one hand, it relates to the past, and on the other hand, to the present. In addition, the reason why this complexity should be searched is for this feature, which can be used to construct a transcendental past to the entire period of time we talk about or link to any part of it.
Conclusion
In this paper, in the framework of the functional-typological approach and with the help of formal, phonetic, historical, semantic, applied, and function criteria, we have studied the functions of the present perfect, including indirect information or evidentiality, tense projection, resultative, hot news, and mirativity in Farsi, and discussed its behavior in relation to the tense, on the one hand, and to the past tense, on the other hand. We have also found out that the feature of current relevance locates on the top part of a hierarchical structure of present perfect functions and entails other functions. Regarding present perfect progressive, we came to this point that evidentiality is the most important function this form is used for in modern Persian.
Zahra Ghane; Vali Rezai
Volume 9, Issue 17 , July 2018, , Pages 1-19
Abstract
Extended abstract
1- Introduction
Locative alternation is a type of multiple argument realization of three-argument transitive verbs involving variable syntactic expression of the arguments. The present paper is, then, an attempt to find an account for this kind of alternation in Persian placement ...
Read More
Extended abstract
1- Introduction
Locative alternation is a type of multiple argument realization of three-argument transitive verbs involving variable syntactic expression of the arguments. The present paper is, then, an attempt to find an account for this kind of alternation in Persian placement verb based upon the theory of Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) and tries to introduce an account involving semantic macro roles. Moreover, the roles of primary and secondary objects as well as of incorporation are examined.
Locative alternation in Persian as well as in English is realized in two variants: location variant and locatum one. To elaborate more, an example from Persian as well as its parallel structure in English comes below:
(1) a.Kârgar-hâ mive râ tuye kâmiyun bâr
worker.PL.NOM hay-DO OBJ-marker PREP truck.OBL load.PAST-
zad-and
PL.3SG
'The workers loaded the hay into the truck.'
(DO: theme location variant~ straight construction)
b. Kârgar-hâ kâmiyun râ mive bâr zad–and
Worker .PL.NOM truck.DO OBJ.marker hay.DO load.PAST-PL.3SG
'The workers loaded the trucks with hay.'
(DO: location locatum variant~ inverted construction
Comparing the Persian example with its English translation suggests that locative alternation in Persian is not usually the same as what we have in English. In English, one of the argument is realized immediately after verb and the other comes as an oblique. In the first sentence, the argument denoting a location is realized as an oblique and the argument denoting a moved entity as the direct object; the syntactic functions of the two arguments are the other way round in another variant: The argument bearing the thematic relation location appears as direct object, the moved entity as an oblique. It is generally assumed that the first construction is "straight" and the second is "inverted" (Kailuweit, 2008).
In Persian, however, the theme is followed by /râ/ in one variant and comes before the verb in the other one while the location is realized as oblique on one variant and followed by / râ/ in the other (Karimi Dustan, & Safari, 2011).
2- Theoretical Framework
Role and Reference Grammar is a functional theory relying on three underlying representation which provides a typological approach to linguistic description and greatly concerns with the interplay of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Following Dowty's representational scheme (1979), state and activity are two main classifications of verb from which the other verb classes are derived. Thus, the state verbs have solely bare predicates in their logical structure while activities, achievements and accomplishments add do', INGR and BECOME, respectively.
Semantic roles are examined in three levels in RRG: Verb-specific semantic roles like runner or speaker, thematic relations as agent or patient, and generalized semantic roles or semantic macro-roles that are actor and undergoer.
3- Methodology
Some data involving the locative alternation in placement verb are gathered from TV programs, lectures, novels, daily conversations or any other sources providing authentic data in Persian; theses data are, then, analyzed based on RRG theoretical framework. Focusing on the aktionsart the verbal predicates presented, the logical structures of the relevant data are, therefore, provided and undergoers are chosen according to the positions the arguments have in the actor-undergoer hierarchy.
4- Results and Discussion
(1)Locative alternation is regarded as a marked undergoer choice in Role and Reference Grammar in which x in Pred' (x) is the marked choice of undergoer (Van Valin & Lapolla, 1997). Then, the logical structure reveals the location as the undergoer. For instance, the logical structure of the following sentence is α= [do'(kimiâ, ∅)] CAUSE [BECOME (β=be-loc' (divâr,rang))] in which Kimia is the actor and divâr is the undergoer.
(2) Kimiâ rang=râ be divâr pâšid-Ø
Kimia.PN paint=OM PREP wall spray.PST-3sg
Kimia sprayed the paint on the wall
Role and Reference Grammar is a functional, context-based theory; therefore, context plays a significant role in the logical structures of the sentences in this grammar. If the theme is a specific and referential argument, its logical structure is like (3) while when it is a non-referential or mass noun, incorporation gets involved and the logical structures turn into (4).
(3) α=[do'(kimiâ,∅)] CAUSE [BECOME (β=be-loc^' (divâr,rang))]
.rang pâšid (kimiyâ, divâr)
In such two-place argument, only one argument can be selected as the undergoer and that is " divâr". The bare noun before verb in inverted construction of locative alternation in Persian is realized in two forms depending on the relevant context. Such noun is either a secondary object and comes in core or it is realized as a non-referential noun in incorporating verb and is regarded as predicate which comes in nucleus layer. The logical structure of the marked/ inverted construction in locative alternation is as (3) with different argument realizations. Such structure has an entailment of holistic interpretation which can be banned depending on encyclopedic knowledge or the context involved. The claim by Kailuweit (2008) can, then, be modified into (3):
Semantic effect of marked Undergoer choice:
"If an argument is a marked choice for undergoer in a given LS, it is interpreted as a prototypical undergoer' i.e. as having at least one of the properties "causally affected", "change of state", "incremental/ extensional theme". " Kailuweit (2008:350) This can be solely realized if the encyclopedic knowledge or the context in which the sentence is uttered do not ban its realization.
The marked undergoer choice of location in inverted construction of locative alternation may enjoy a holistic interpretation in some particular context as having at least one of the properties "causally affected", "change of state", "incremental/ extensional theme".
5- Conclusions and Suggestions
Giving some examples of locative alternarion in Persian, the present study concluded that two arguments- theme and location- are competing to receive the macrorole of undergoer. Then, "marked-undergoer- choice-rule" is imposed to choose the location argument as undergoer in the inverted constructions; however, this is not working when incorporation is involved; in that case, there is only one core argument in the construction that is selected as undergoer.
Vali Rezaee
Volume 4, Issue 7 , September 2013
Abstract
The category of Verb as the nucleus of sentence has a significant importance in grammar. This grammatical category has specific semantic and syntactic characteristics in different languages. In Role and Reference Grammar as a functional grammar, predicates are classified into five classes including states, ...
Read More
The category of Verb as the nucleus of sentence has a significant importance in grammar. This grammatical category has specific semantic and syntactic characteristics in different languages. In Role and Reference Grammar as a functional grammar, predicates are classified into five classes including states, activities, achievements, accomplishments and active-accomplishments. These five classes are distinguished from each other on the basis of their temporal properties. States are non-dynamic and temporally unbounded; activities are dynamic and temporally unbounded; achievements are temporally bounded instantaneous changes, while accomplishments are temporally extended. Active accomplishments are activity predicates with an end point. This paper explores syntactic and semantic behavior of static verbs in Persian. First, I will establish some diagnostic tests for verb classification in Persian. Afterwards, the characteristics of static verbs will be demonstrated. It will be shown that static verbs are not used in progressive aspect. Moreover, two-place static verbs have no passive form since the object of such verbs is not considered as a prototypical object.
Vali Rezai
Volume 3, Issue 4 , January 2012
Abstract
Causative constructions play an important role in the mental and linguistic system of human beings. The methodology that is used in this paper for studying causative constructions in Persian is the combination of the Morphology-based approach and Song’s model (1996, 2001). Emphasizing the causer NP ...
Read More
Causative constructions play an important role in the mental and linguistic system of human beings. The methodology that is used in this paper for studying causative constructions in Persian is the combination of the Morphology-based approach and Song’s model (1996, 2001). Emphasizing the causer NP and the causee NP, we draw the semantic map of the causer NP (based on the animacy hierarchy). In addition, we studied the position of the causee NP in Case hierarchy. The iconicity of the linguistic distance and conceptual distance between the causer NP and the causee NP were also studied. The results of this study show that the position of the causee NP in Case hierarchy is not always fixed and sometimes it has a flexible position. Also the linguistic distance between the causer NP and the causee NP in lexical causatives usually reveals the conceptual distance between them, so it is iconic. But in syntactic causatives this linguistic distance is not always iconic.
